In this concluding article on HTML, we
discuss few precautions and checklists that would
help you weed out avoidable mistakes and ensure quality
of your web-site.
Whether you design your website yourself
or get it done by a skilled designer/consultant -
as owner of the website you are ultimately responsible
for its success or failure. Website is your face to
the world. Your customers may or may not get to see
your impressive office or ISO-9000 production facility
- but they will certainly see your website and form
a first-hand opinion about your company from it. And
as we all know, first impression generally lasts the
longest.
Amidst technicalities and scripting jargons,
we often forget that real work begins only after HTML
pages are scripted ! Because, simple mistakes and
misspells can convey an extremely negative image about
your company not to talk of design glitches. The only
way you can avoid such embarrassment is to make sure
that your web pages are properly tested before your
customers view it.
Testing involves everything from spell-checking
your content to tracing each and every link on each
individual page to make sure that all the pieces hook
together properly.
Once you have checked your work to make
sure its mechanically correct and accurate, you need
to make sure that your content is being properly communicated.
That means interacting with knowledgeable persons
within and outside your organization, potential customers
etc., soliciting their feedback and then acting on
what they have to say.
Following steps guide you through few
essential but simple tests that your web pages must
go through (there might be more tests required for
your particular application).
-
Run it through spell-checker - Avoid
most commonly occurring silly mistakes
-
Check the grammar and readability.
- MS-Word has a very useful feature for checking
readability. It even allots readability statistics
for comparison.
-
Test the relative links in the page
from your own computer
-
Run the page through at least two
browsers (e.g. Netscape and Internet Explorer)
and at least two different display resolutions.
Your pages should behave in a uniform manner under
different browsers and screen resolutions.
-
Upload the pages in your web-server
and check loading time, outside links and server
side applications (CGI, Forms, BBS etc.)
-
Submit the page's URL to an online
HTML validation service. Some of the popular validation
services are:
NetMechanic
Website
Garage
-
Show the pages to a select knowledgeable
user-group. Solicit feedback and act on what they
say.
You may ask 'Why spend so much time in
testing ? It's delaying the project' The answer, in
a word, is quality. If you want quality web pages,
capable of creating positive impression about your
organization, testing is a crucial ingredient.
